Why we do what we do.

Our values and goals

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Our primary goal is to protect the rights of people who are applying for international protection or have already received it. One of these rights is not to have to sleep outside.
As we cannot meet the needs of all persons, even if they are all legitimate, we have decided to focus our support on people in need of protection and to provide them with accommodation if necessary. For us, this also includes single women, who are unfortunately not covered by the law.

The legal basis

The right to accommodate applicants for international protection is set out in Legislative Decree No. 142 of 2015, which is based on European Directive 2013/33/EU. This decree law stipulates that the measures of accommodation are to be applied “from the moment the intention to apply for international protection is manifested” (Art. 1, para. 2), i.e. it is not necessary for the application for international protection to have already been submitted or formalized.

For refugees, i.e. persons who have already been granted international protection status, Italian law provides for equal treatment with Italian citizens.  “Refugees have the right to equal access to public housing and social services, possibly to be provided by each region or municipality, in order to facilitate access to housing rentals and the construction, restoration, purchase and rental of the primary residence” (Article 29(3) of Legislative Decree 251/2007).

Our experiences

From our experience, including our work at the train station as Binario 1, as well as our additional experience in this area, we can say that women living on the street are one of the most vulnerable groups of persons.  Before women end up on the street, they often go through serious experiences, according to the experiences of our two volunteers.  Poverty, responsibility for children, lack of education and unemployment increase their dependence on often violent partners. Their social network is not able to support the women in this emergency situation and consequently many end up on the street, often traumatized.

The security of having a place to live meets the most important basic need of every human being. This opportunity provides the women with a foundation from which they can reorient and organize themselves, process their experiences and gain new courage and self-confidence. Together with the women, we create CVs, look for jobs, language and literacy courses or an internships. In doing so, we focus on each person individually and according to their life situation. Together, we try to work out opportunities and possibilities and to strengthen the women so that they can build a self-determined life in South Tyrol. Experience has shown that the persons accompanied by the Schutzhütte spend between 6 and 18 months in our project and continue to receive counseling also after the project has been completed.